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Topic: Google Drive launched (Read 14719 times)

After over two months of rumors, Google has finally lifted the lid off of Google Drive. It's the company's entry into the cloud-based file storage service business that already has several competitors, including Microsoft's SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box and others.

In a post on Google's official blog, the company details what users can expect of Google Drive. First, the important stuff. You can use up to 5 GB of storage space on the service for free. However, much like Microsoft's just revamped SkyDrive, you can also purchase more storage space. Paying just $2.49 a month brings the storage limit to 25 GB.

You can also go up to 100 GB for $4.99 a month. If you want to go all out, you can even sign up for 1 TB of storage space. However, that will set you back $49.99 a month. Any time you buy extra space on Google Drive, your Gmail space will also increase to 25 GB.

Google Docs has been integrated into Google Drive, where users can collaborate on documents inside the cloud drive. Google states, "Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items."

Google has also released a Google Drive app for Android-based smartphones and tablets and the company says it is working on an iOS app as well (sorry, no word on a Windows Phone app). Google Drive also has extensive search features and can even search for words inside a scanned image of a document, such as an old newspaper clipping. It adds:

The desktop app is bare bones, it didn't ask me for an install location (as usual) and I had to disable the GoogleUpdate service (I have collected three entries for their update services over time, all disabled). There's no decent upload progress indicator either. /whine

I am more than happy with the core service. The two-step security is reassuring and has enabled me to get way less paranoid about my email since I started using it a few months back. So, Google Drive looks like a keeper.

There is no way a company can get your files, make them available to you, store them in multiple datacenters for security, convert formats, scale images, OCR text, allow you to share files with others, and so on, without making sure you give them the right to "use" the files under certain restrictions.

There's a story out there that the TOS allows Google to basically fold, spindle, and mutilate your data, far beyond what dropbox and MS say "only use the data for providing the service."

Jibz is exactly right, and there was actually some commotion about Dropbox back in the day for having a similar TOS. A lot of people are making a big deal out of the sentence or two that talk about Google requiring you to give them a license to your stuff, but comparatively few people seem to be mentioning the part where it says you retain ownership of all your stuff.

... there are still some causes for legitimate concern about the wording of what followed, and was less widely reported by the Twitterati: "This licence continues even if you stop using our Services". That's the license in which you are granting Google the rights to use your data for the "limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving" its services as well as to "develop new ones”.

And there lies the rub methinks, this is less about data ownership and more about data usage, privacy and security. Google does not, as it clearly states, own your data; ownership remains with the user, but it sure as heck does seem to expect an awful big slice of privilege when it comes to what it can do with that data forever more.

If I were to put any sensitive files on their servers, I'd simply encrypt them first.

I mean .. 5 GB free storage, with the same features as everybody else. It would have been awesome 5 years ago, but today it is just another one .

5 GB is pretty average. On the other hand, their upgrade plans such as 25 GB for $2.50/month, 100 GB at $4.99 or 1 TB for $49.99 is a steal. My main concern, privacy aside, is what happens a year or two from now. Does Google yet again just find out that they can't be bothered with the service any longer?

$50/mo is a steal for 1 TB? At that price I could buy about six 2 TB hard drives per year. At the end of a year I'd have 12 TB of storage space for the same price.

You're right it's a steal. But who is stealing from whom?

Compared to the competition, it's a good deal. Also, yes, it's expensive compared to purchasing a HDD yourself, but that's hardly comparable. Sure, if I upgraded my connection I could run my own server, but for that to be anywhere near useful I'd need to upgrade my connection to something that's up for the job. At that point, I'd be spending a lot more than $50/month, and that's without factoring in the cost of having yet another PC powered on 24/7. Also, I'm not about to start making my own Win/iOS/Android clients either...